Thankful For Prayer

 1 John 5:14-15


14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.


Christianity is unique and rare in many ways.  One of the greatest ways is that we have full access to God.  In other religious institutions around the world, they may have a practice of prayer but their faith does not guarantee that their “gods” will hear them.  In fact, many times, they state that certain events happen because their “gods” do not hear them.   In a lot of other religions, they cannot even have access in any way to their “gods.”  In fact, they are distant and have no assurance of anything.  The beautiful thing with Christianity is that we have the testimony in Scripture and the history of the church that declares our access to God and the gift of prayer that we have.


Have you ever thought how special it is that we can even talk to God?  Not only that, but that we have the promise that we can go to Him with any of our concerns or just even talk to Him about what we are going through in life?  It’s an awesome thought isn’t it when you realize that we can fully go to God and communicate with Him.


Do you remember what happened after the crucifixion?  The veil in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.  God ripped it open giving us access to the Holy of Holies, thereby having full access to God.  Jesus Christ became our intercessor.


Romans 8:34 says,


34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.


We are so special to God.  He loves us so much that He gave His Son to take the penalty of our sin.  When He did and rose again triumphantly from the grave, He became our intercessor.  We now have an open line of communication to God.  It’s not just what we wanted, but something God wanted.  God craves our prayers and He wants to spend time with us alone in prayer.


In Matthew 6:6, Jesus instructs us,


 But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.


God wants us to Himself and He wants to hear from us when we have no distractions.  Just Him and us.  Isn’t that awesome!


When was the last time that you actually thanked God for just the opportunity to even talk to Him?  

Let us go to Him with a heart of thankfulness in the fact that He gives us the opportunity to talk to Him directly.  Let us also remember that a huge part of prayer is Thanksgiving in itself.  1 Timothy 2 says, 


Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men


Let us remember the next time we pray that we should be thankful for the very words that we get to say to Him.

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